Cocoa and Echos
by ColorfulClouds
Summary: Maya learns a little bit more about the Crimson Raiders favorite hermit! Rated T for cursing and reference to sexy times Please R&R
1. Chapter 1

Maya looked out over the canyon outside Mordecai's mountain top lair. This was her third and last stop on her monthly supplies run to the outlying members of the Crimson Raiders. She had been making these runs for the eight months since they had finally killed Handsome Jack and his Warrior. Once Hyperion had gone down with the absence of Jack, Fast travel stations had become… unreliable. Maya's last experience with it was witnessing the arms and half the torso of a man appearing out of it, and not the rest of him. Since then, six months ago, fast travel in and out of sanctuary had been shut down, and Maya had been forced to make her trips on foot. Rather than accept that fate, her and Tiny Tina had sat down and hocked together a small one person hovercraft, which Tina had affectionately christened "Mamma Jamba". Since then, the supply runs to the Crimson Raiders ran monthly, and Maya got to see more of Pandora then she had ever thought possible.

Maya shivered in the howling wind at the mouth of the cave, regretting not bringing her coat. She had almost never forgotten her things at the abbey, how meager they might have been. But there was something about the dark beauty of Pandora at night that made her forget herself, and the view from Mordecai's house was… spectacular. Every facet of the land was thrown in sharp contrast against the rapidly darkening sky, and the moon shown white gold across the landscape. When she saw Pandora like this, it reminded her of what she had dreamed of in the Temple, before she had come and Jack had thrown everything to shit.

"Hey." A gruff voice behind her called softly, breaking her train of thought. "I brought you a blanket," He continued, gesturing to the bundle in his arms. "Thanks," She said gratefully. "NO problem, Wanna sit?" He asked, throwing himself down on the ledge and patting the ground next to him. She carefully sat, trying not to fall to the ground below "So, just got off the ECHO with Lilith. She wants to know when you plan on coming back." Mordecai stated, swinging his legs back and forth in the air. "Last time I was there, they didn't really need me." Maya replied, leaning on the cool outcropping of rock at her back. "Tannis, Lilith, and Tina are too busy with trying to make a space craft out of Loader parts to Wanna do anything else, Brick is sleeping his way through half the girls in sanctuary, and Moxxie wants me to go to work for her. So staying away is much easier. I'll be there before the next supply run, so I'm okay for now." She finished, flexing her hands and staring at the network of fine white scars that now marred the once smooth skin. "Though, I should probably head out before it gets too dark." She added decisively, staring once again at the beautiful vista. "You don't have to! You can stay here a while, have cocoa by the fire, it'll be great!" Mordecai said jovially, smiling a toothy grin at the Siren next to him.

"No, if Lilith said she needs me, then she probably needs me. Besides, I don't want to put out." Maya replied, standing and brushing the dust off her legs. "Yeah, I'm sure Sanctuary needs its great Hero back, too." He joked, going silent when he saw the slightly pained look on her face. "What, don't like your nickname?" He questioned, scrambling to his feet. "It's not that it upsets me, I just… don't think Pandora has heroes. I think Pandora only has bad guys, and arch villains. And just because I took out the Arch Villain doesn't make me a good person." She replied softly, shifting from foot to foot, just like at the abbey when she had to tell Brother Sophis what she had done wrong. "What? Not a good person? Maya, you saved everyone. You destroyed the warrior. Jesus Christ, chica! You're a great person!" Mordecai asserted, gripping her arm and turning her around to face him. "Thanks, Kai, but that's simply untrue." Maya rebutted, turning again to walk away. He lost his hold on her arm, and grabbed at her slender hand instead. Maya's heart jumped into her throat and she turned back again to face him. "Hey, if you don't Wanna be Pandora's hero, that's fine. But... you're my hero, okay?" Mordecai said softly, not a trace of sarcasm in his words. "Thank you." She supplied gently as he dropped her hand and rubbed her palms together. "Now, let's get us some cocoa!" he crowed gleefully, smiling beneath his goggles. Maya shook her head at the overgrown man-child and followed him deeper into the cave barely trying to conceal the wide grin that had broken over her features. He turned and caught her smile at the corner of his eyes, and frowned when his heart sped up and fluttered in his chest. That hadn't happened since he had dated that girl from Rigilis 12, and that had NOT ended well.

"Look, Kai, I really should be getting back. You don't have to try to make me feel better." Maya started before Mordecai interrupted her by shoving a chipped and cracked mug into her hands. "Don't you start with that shit, Chica. You're staying, and that's that! Gets lonely up here anyway." Mordecai grumbled, putting the rehydrated milk and cocoa mixture in a pan over the fire. They sat around the small cooking fire for a few minutes in silence, waiting on the cocoa. When he had finally deemed it satisfactorily warm, he filled both of their cups, and immediately set to drinking the scalding liquid.

"What's wrong?" Mordecai asked, noticing that she had yet to sip the delicious cocoa. "I've… never had cocoa before." She said softly, gazing into her mug like it contained the answers to all the mysteries on Pandora. "What, never? No way." He replied, shocked. "It was considered a luxury. Luxuries weren't allowed. The abbey was very serious about things like that." She took a sip of the Cocoa, considering the tall, rather handsome man in front of her. "So, do you have eyes under there, or only the goggles?" She asked, changing the subject. "Oh, um, well," Mordecai mumbled, wringing his hands. "I've actually not shown anyone on Pandora my eyes. At all." He muttered, fidgeting. "Wait, not ever? But didn't you and Moxxie…?" She stopped when she saw the light blush start to creep up Mordecai's neck. "She... um. Made me keep them on during, ya know... because it helped… keep my "Rock star Mystique"." He finished with a lopsided grin, the blush over taking his ears and the whole of his neck. He looked at Maya, for just a second, the rest of his face turned downwards. She was beautiful right now, eyes sparkling and lips turned in a slightly teasing smile. A shot of courage when through him, and he lifted his face to hers. "Do you Wanna see em?" he asked boldly, grinning broadly. "I'd love to." Maya replied softly, eyes wide.

His hands flicked up to the thick straps on the sides of his face, preparing to unbuckle the constraining clasps on either side of the goggles. Suddenly, he felt a pair of small, warm hands on both of his. "Let me." Maya said gently, moving Mordecai's hands away from his face. With two quick snaps, the goggles had fallen into his hands. He blinked in the sudden light, then glanced at the woman in front of him. Her suit had never covered much, but today, to him, it seemed basically see through. He closed his eyes quickly as a shot of chills went down his back, and kept them closed until he had felt she'd moved a bit. "Well, open them!" Maya demanded. He opened them slowly, wincing slightly at the sudden light flooding his sight. She pulled on his arms, making him climb swiftly, lithely to his feet. He was taller than her by a whole foot, and he had to look down for her to get any view of his eyes at all.

They stood there, too close to each other for a few seconds as she stared deep into his eyes. "Well?" He questioned softly, rubbing the back of his head. "Well what?" she retorted, raising her eyebrow in a perfect imitation of himself. "Well, what color are they?" He bit out, embarrassed. "You don't know your own eye color?" She asked, shock written across her face. "No. I'm color blind, remember?" He reminded her, sure that he had told her this last time she'd asked him the color of something or the other while the group was playing drunken 20 questions at Moxxie's. "Oh yeah! Well… they're a kind of forest green, and the right one has a stripe of gray running through it." The description was short, but either from the intimacy of staring into his eyes or the closeness of their stance, she was out of breath by the end of it. Mordecai thought his heart was going to beat right out of his chest. He kept cataloguing different things about her that he had never noticed before, like how her short hair smelled like berries, or that she had the plumpest lips she had ever seen. In fact, he was thinking about all the fun things he could do with those lips that he didn't notice her leaning in slowly. He only realized what was happening when her lips lightly brushed his. He flinched a bit, startled, and she started to move back when she lost her balance. She flailed out, grabbing at Mordecai as she fell and managed to pull him down with her. He landed awkwardly, their legs in a tangle and his arms bracing himself up on either side of her face. "Well, Kai, if you wanted to get on top of me, you could have just asked!" She teased, laughing. ''Oh, shut up. He growled in response, bending his face to hers.

Hours later, a pleasantly sore and satisfied Maya woke to the insistent chirp of an ECHO device. She lifted her head from Mordecai's sinewy chest and reached for the nearby ECHO. "Yeah, whassup?" Maya asked sleepily, wriggling closer to the slightly snoring hunter. "Maya? Where the hell are you? I expected you back by now!" Lillith exploded, causing Maya's eyes to spring open. She suppressed a curse as she scrambled for a reasonable excuse. "I'm, um... on my way. I fell asleep on the way. I'll be there in two hours." And she would be, if she pushed Mamma Jamba to the limit. "Uh, gurllll I call bullshit." Tiny Tina piped in in a singsong. "And why is that?" Maya said, dread starting to build in her stomach. "Well, for one, I hear snoring. And unless you picked up a hitchhiker, which I suriusly doubt, that's Mordecai."

"And two, you're using Mordecai's communicator. Which means you're in his cave. And if I'm not mistaken, in his bed." Lillith finished, and Maya could hear the ire start to creep into her voice. Before she could formulate an appropriate answer, nimble fingers plugged the communicator away from her. "Christ, Lil. Can't you let a man rest?"

"Mordecai! Jesus! Are you seriously sleeping with Maya? She's fifteen years younger than you!" Lillith shouted through the ECHO. Maya winced. She was in so much trouble when she got back to Sanctuary. "So what if I am? You can yell at us in the morning. Goodnight." He didn't wait for a response, shutting down the link and tossing the beat up device into the corner. Without another word, he pulled Maya closer, and she decided to worry about tomorrow when it came.


	2. Author's Note

Hi everyone, CC here.

This one shot was something I randomly came up with when entering the Wildlife Exploitation reserve in Borderlands 2. It was originally only two paragraphs, but it took a mind of its own

Anyway, I hope you like it.

Toodles!

~CC


End file.
